^^I'm getting a promo copy soon and I'm wondering how it'll sit with me. I love Pynchon but his ideas have definitely aged a lot, and it seems like this book operates in a very contemporary, digital setting--so I definitely wonder how he handled it. Also, anything that directly and plainly deals with 9/11 has a lot of terrible peers to contend with. Just historically for me as a reader, most 9/11 narratives are extremely heavy handed.

I'm glad Winston is getting good shows again. Just wish I had leave from work right now and could go.

No clue if you might be into this at all, but why doesn't Raleigh have more comedy venues? Charlie Goodnight's doesn't seem to go for any "alt" (stupid term) comics and sticks mostly to Last Comic Standing guys or Louie Andersons or Charlie Murphys of the world (people who are funny I guess? but who gives a shit). They bring in one Doug Benson or Graham Elwood or James Adomian for every 5 Jimme Walkers.

Neil Hamburger, Rob Delaney, and Todd Barry have all played Kings in the past year or so

I'm sure I've forgotten others"

That's great to hear. I grew up not far from here and had to move to DC to see acts like this. Glad it's coming here now. If Raleigh or Durham is so hip now, they should totally get a live How Did This Get Made or Doug Loves Movies at Carolina Theater or maybe Rialto soon. Hardwick is coming to the Carolina in a couple weeks, too.

the only comic that came there over the past year that I care about is Marc Maron, and I won a bunch of free passes that night. there hasn't been one comic that has been there since that I've wanted to use a pass to go see (and I won the passes in February)

With that said, I saw them in '04 on the first reunion tour and it was tremendous, but I'm a crazy Pixies fan. And I haven't seen them any of the other times they've been here, because the prices are dumb and once was enough.

I couldn't give two shits about Skinny Puppy, so if it seems more fun, do that.